Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fâ‘ilün

Düşmen ḳamu kişiye raḳîb oldı ‘âḳıbet
Gör ṭâli‘üm ki baña ḥabîb oldı ‘âḳıbet
Dil derdine devâlar umarken viren baña
Şerbet yerine zehri ṭabîb oldı ‘âḳıbet
Luṭf u vefâsı müdde‘iye oldı dâ’imâ
Cevr ü cefâsı baña naṣîb oldı ‘âḳıbet
Ṣaldı beni ḳapulara bî-i‘tibâr idüp
Yanında müdde‘î yeri dip oldı ‘âḳıbet
Çoḳdur cihânda derd-i nigâr ile mübteẕel
Mihrî senüñ işüñ de ġarîb oldı ‘âḳıbet

In English

1. The enemy of everyone has in the end become a rival; see my fortune, for my enemy has in the end become the beloved herself. (The couplet can be read in two ways: "The rival, who is hostile to everyone, has in the end become a beloved to me," or "everyone's enemy is the rival, but mine turned out to be my beloved." The second reading better suits the couplet's emphasis on ill fortune.)

2. While I hoped for a remedy for the heart's pain, the one who gave me poison instead of sherbet has in the end been the physician himself.

3. Her kindness and fidelity always went to the rival; her cruelty and torment have in the end fallen to my lot. ("Müddeî", the claimant, is the rival who claims closeness to the beloved.)

4. She made me worthless and sent me wandering from door to door. Beside her, the rival's place has in the end become the "dip", the innermost corner. (Here "dip" appears to mean the spot right next to the beloved, the inner corner of the gathering; the sense of the word is not entirely certain.)

5. Many in the world are wretched and brought low by the pain of love. O Mihrî, your case too has in the end become "ġarîb". ("Ġarîb" means both strange and friendless, pitiable.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ninth ghazal (gazel) of the divan is in the section Ḥarfü't-Tâ and has five couplets (beyit). It is composed in the muzâri' metre in the pattern "Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fâ‘ilün", the same metre as the previous ghazal. The redif (refrain word) is "oldı ‘âḳıbet" (has in the end become …). The rhyme is the sound "-îb": raḳîb, ḥabîb, ṭabîb, naṣîb, ġarîb; the word "dip" at the end of the fourth couplet does not fully match this series in sound. Most of the rhyme words are the same as those of the seventh ghazal in the section Ḥarfü'l-Bâ; the two ghazals work the same set of words with different refrains and metres. The poem is found in all four manuscripts. It is not known to whom it was written.

The word "‘âḳıbet" (in the end) in the redif shapes the meaning of the ghazal. Each couplet describes the reversal of an expectation: a friend becomes an enemy, a physician becomes the one who gives poison, kindness becomes something that goes to the rival. The redif presents all these reversals as a final outcome, a result, and gives the poem the air of a settling of accounts.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The main theme of the ghazal is the lover's ill fortune. In the first couplet the words "düşmen" (enemy), "raḳîb" (rival) and "ḥabîb" (beloved) are used together. While everyone's enemy is the rival, the lover's enemy has turned out to be the beloved herself; the phrase "Gör ṭâli‘üm" (see my fortune) meets this situation with bitter irony. The opposition between enemy and friend (ḥabîb) is an example of antithesis (tezat).

In the second couplet the same reversal is told through images of medicine. Kaya observes that in nearly every couplet of the divan where the word "tabîb" (physician) occurs it stands for the beloved, that the patient is the heart and so the lover, and that although the lover's only remedy is the beloved, it is also the beloved who inflicts the pain; she cites this couplet as an example. Sherbet means both a sweet drink and a medicinal syrup; its contrast with poison strikingly expresses a physician who gives death in place of medicine.

In the third couplet kindness and fidelity are set against cruelty and torment. Kaya cites this couplet where she explains that what wounds the lover most is that the beloved shows kindness to the rival, giving him favour, while tormenting the lover. In the fourth couplet the lover has fallen, disgraced, to wandering from door to door, while the rival has settled at the beloved's side. The contrast between door and "dip", outside and inside, shows through space how far the lover and the rival are from the beloved.

In the last couplet the poet compares her own state with that of other lovers in the world. Many are brought low by the pain of love, but Mihrî's case has become "ġarîb". The word, which completes the rhyme series, can be read in both its senses at once: Mihrî's situation is strange, since her enemy is her beloved and the one who gives her poison is her physician, and it is also friendless. Using the two meanings together makes a manner of speech close to double entendre (tevriye).

Bibliography

Online sources